Vibrant Vintage CAL – Main

Welcome to the Vibrant Vintage CAL (VVCAL) Information Page! Here you will find the fully-linked timeline (near the top for easy access), design basics, and color choices for our blanket.

Loving the VVCAL and feeling generous? Help me support a dear friend of mine who is battling stage 4 renal cancer, while raising 2 toddlers (one recently adopted, and one surprise successful pregnancy!). Click here to donate – any amount will help, and I genuinely appreciate it! Link leads to http://paypal.me/VVCALdonate

I’ll link all patterns and instructions as I write them up, this way you can skip around and/or use joining and border instructions for other projects through the year. If something is not anywhere linked, it just means I have not added the post yet. Adjust your CAL speed to as slowly or quickly you’d like to complete your blanket.

Try this CAL in a built tough, but super soft DK weight yarn with a huge color range, such as:

I look forward to seeing all the blanket variations and color selections y’all come up with!

Helpful Notes

Square size

Make sure your squares all have the same number of stitches on each side. It doesn’t have to be 88 sts final round like mine. If you want to choose your own pattern squares, just make sure they are all the same amount of sts on the final round.

Make sure your squares are very close in size. A couple millimeters off is nothing to worry about, but if you find one is way off from the others and you want to tweak the pattern, just preserve the same stitch count.

Head to the Ravelry group (linked above) for the forum with lots of help for any questions or concerns

Squares

For Weeks 1-32, we will be working 2 squares per week – 1 Design square and 1 Plain square. Sub in your favorite granny squares if you like!

General Square Info

Size: 5.5in, before the additional DC round

Stitch count – Squares are 23 SC across on the final round, includingthe corner stitches, and beforethe additional DC round

Design squares are named after lots of wonderful people I have known!

Every 8 weeks during this time, we will edge our granny squares with a DC round. You can also do this after you make them every week! I prefer to edge mine in batches. Link to square edging instruction is in the weekly schedule below.

Joining

We will join with a “continuous join as you go” method of my PLT Join. The blanket is made of 8 rows, with 8 squares each. If you would like to use the joining method for a different blanket, find general join instructions at the following links.

Design

64 Blocks

– 32 Granny Square designs

– 24 Plain Granny Squares
– 8 Multi-Color Granny Squares

Features a “Continuous JAYG” joining method

Lush lace border with unique shell corners

Color Palette

I’ll be using 20 colors for my blanket. In case you want to know exactly what yarn I’m using, I have listed the shades below. You can definitely use any stash yarn you want – I’ve updated with some options at the bottom of this post.

I am using 1 shade of New Fashion DK, and 19 shades of Stylecraft Special DK. You can use any colors you like! Here are the ones I chose – based on a selection by Little Tin Bird (see her gorgeous post here) I’ll also be using some random yarns from my stash, because I like vintage looking blankets to be really scrappy.

Hook: Size H

New Fashion DK – #438 – Aspen

Stylecraft Special DK

#1019 Cloud Blue

#1241 Fondant

#1084 Magenta

#1065 Meadow

#1390 Clematis

#1316 Spring Green

#1422 Aspen

#1068 Turquoise

#1081 Saffron

#1034 Sherbet

#1432 Wisteria

#1302 Denim

#1003 Aster

#1082 Bluebell

#1132 Shrimp

#1246 Lipstick

#1023 Raspberry

#1083 Pomegranate

#1061 Plum

Updated to add:

Vibrant Vintage blanket is approximately 68x68inches when worked in DK weight yarn with size 5mm hook.

You can make it any size by changing the square amount, or by working with different weight yarn. Any weight yarn with your favorite corresponding hook will work! Many of you are really interested in the join and border instruction! I’ll tell you that it doesn’t matter how big your blanket is… The join and border will be written such that they will fit on any size blanket.

Here are some options for you:

Make a DK weight scrappy blanket like me! Use as many colors as you want, and you’ll need about 4 balls of neutral color for the join and the v-stitch portion of the border

Make a worsted weight blanket! You’ll need about 60-70oz of worsted weight yarn total – I will use 9-10 skeins of 7oz each.

Use up more of each yarn ball by choosing a smaller color palette. Do this option if you don’t have much stash, and you don’t want to have too much yarn left over. You’ll need 12 colors for the squares and final border, and 4 balls neutral for join and v-stitch portion of border. 16 balls total

If you want to work an all neutral border, you only need 10 balls for the squares, and 6 balls neutral for join and border. Still 16 balls total

Any other blanket options are up to you! Have fun! Go wild! Tag #VVCAL 😉

Ah yes – I decided since so many crafters started using their own preferred join, I would leave the joining decision up to the crafter! So choice of join is up to you! I have a few free joins on my website here:

Hope this helps! Lots of crafters used Celtic Lace Join, and some Flat Braid, as well as the regular SC PLT that I linked you to above. They’re all gorgeous, and the border will work for any of them! 😁❤️

Just found you on pinterest. Got lost in the wonder of it all, lost my original pinner so can’t credit – sorry.
I make blankets for local neonatal unit so each square will be individual blanket.
Thank you so much for giving your time and effort, I really appreciate it as I now have my patterns in one place.

Hi there!! No color plan – it’s supposed to feel cozy, so random is beautiful! Many crafters have used a “checkerboard” layout with the plain and patterned squares, and others have used similar planned layouts, but all the ones I’ve made are random. Crafter’s choice! 🙂
– RC